Why Being Proactive About Cybersecurity is Your #1 Defense

Daniel Tobok
E: [email protected]

Posted on: October 30, 2017

In the world of security, safety and privacy for your business, due diligence is your best friend. It’s critical to the reliability and safety of your network and business infrastructure, which have likely evolved alongside the rise of cyber crime and corporate espionage activities. The time has never been better to double down on safety and security measures that keep your business protected against infiltration by cyber criminals.

Being proactive about cybersecurity is your best defence. Aligning IT security management protocols and procedures (and keeping your employees familiar with your organization’s processes) are a great place to start and go a long way in establishing a strong foundation that protects your business against invasive cyber criminals.

After all, you can never really be too safe. In today’s business environment, rife with regular cybersecurity incidents, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Lazy Security Practices Account for Many Breaches

Today’s security breaches, including the high-profile cases featured in the news, occurred because of a vulnerability with people rather than machines. It’s critically important to examine your own cybersecurity policies and procedures and to understand how strictly they’re enforced by your staff or contractors. It only takes a single weak link to cause catastrophic damage to your business’ value, reputation and revenues.

Cybersecurity training for your employees need to be regular and mandatory. Its success depends on the creation of strong policies and procedures, and equipping them with the technology and systems that maximize protection against cyber breaches.

Make it a top priority that all levels of your organization know your cybersecurity processes, and how important it is for everyone to stay on top of current and evolving threats.

Divert Criminals that Want to Exploit Weak Networks

Establishing a strong cybersecurity defence network is akin to putting up security cameras, signs, barb wire, motion detectors and guard dogs in a traditional brick-and-mortar on-premise security scenario. Many criminals will avoid those targets with managed security systems.

Prevention is no longer enough, and in today’s business environment, a strategic approach to cybersecurity is necessary. Deploying an approach that uses threat intelligence to prevent cyber criminals from infiltrating your network is a good place to start, but you must also recognize that you won’t be able to stop everything. Develop a solution that helps you detect malicious activity before it causes significant damage.

If you don’t know where to start, seek out the help of cybersecurity professionals who can help you uncover blind spots in your existing network defences and outline the next steps you should take.

Establishing a Proactive Security Plan – Your 5-Step Guide

Establishing the security measures that help your company be proactive about cybersecurity doesn’t need to be a burden.

1. Identify major cybersecurity incidents that occur most often among organizations within your industry, and why they happen.

For example, systems infected with malware, ransomware or spyware are generally caused by:

  • Uneducated employees
  • Social engineering
  • Outdated software

2. Build a data assessment list.

  • Identify what your most valuable data is.
  • Where is it kept, and on what accounts?
  • Do we have backups in multiple locations?

3. Test your existing system, and imagine all possible scenarios.

Perform a vulnerability assessment to identify potential deficiencies

  • Identify the information your employees have access to
  • What’s your employees’ level of security education?
  • What happens if data is lost, leaked or deleted?

4. Perform a cost/benefits analysis to determine the cybersecurity measure most affordable and practical for your organization.

Split them in two major categories:

  • people education
  • technology (software / hardware)

5. Seek out professional help

Not if, But When

The dangers of a cybersecurity breach are clear. Too many organizations are finding themselves victims of an attack, causing strains on their revenues and reputation. A proactive approach makes cybersecurity a top priority by taking the time to educate your employees and performing due diligence to identify holes in your existing cyber armour. Failure to do so is costly, not only in terms of dollars and cents, but also for your organization’s reputation and the value it deliver its customers.

Today, it’s not a case of ‘if’ you will get breached but ‘when.’ Take action sooner rather than later to mitigate the impact to your organization.